The application to the Fermi Paradox is not something I had imagined before but it makes a lot of sense. Sealing ourselves in with trash.
Especially combined with the discovery there are so many super Earths (rocky planets with a mass bigger than the Earth). With a larger planet, the gravity is higher and it becomes a lot harder to go to space. Not impossible, but never at the point it becomes viable for them to setup a space industry.
So it’s another Goldilocks filter. Not so much gravity you can’t get to space, but not so little going to space is easy and you end up sealing yourself in due to Kessler syndrome. It has to be just right.
I don’t know how much this filter is an issue, but it’s just one of many many filters that might all combine to produce the Fermi paradox.
We’re barreling toward it
What do you mean we shouldn’t have competing satellite internet companies that each need to deploy thousands upon thousands of satellites each year? What about the shareholders? Gotta generate value for them.
Years ago in KSP I managed to hit myself with space junk I had left in orbit. It was interesting to experience but due to the physics engine all it did was poof half of my space station away.